The normal options of diplomacy and sanctions don’t appear to be effective in dealing with North Korea’s recent nuclear exercises. Threats of retaliation by the U.S. also exacerbate the problem, by making Kim Jong-un appear weak to his internal audience, according to Dr. Bob Huish.

Huish, Associate Professor, Department of International Development Studies, Dalhousie University, spoke to a CIC Halifax audience Sept. 7, 2017 and provided many vivid and disturbing images of North Korea as a feudal state, financed by a brutal gangster regime.

Fifty per cent of N. Korean’s population is identified as hostile, 200,000 are imprisoned and tortured in labour camps, taking the Stalinest gulag to a new level. There are thousands of refugees in China and elsewhere, many of whom have shared stories of brutality.

Dr. Huish suggests that the major powers need to recognize that N. Korea is more like the Mafia than a normal regime.

The way forward, according to Dr. Huish, is for the major powers to put pressure on those jurisdictions and organizations that facilitate N.Korea’s illegal activities, which are a major part of its economy.